PDP expels top leader for criticising Sayeed

Jammu, March 9 (IANS) The People’s Democratic Party (PDP), junior partner in Jammu and Kashmir’s ruling coalition, Sunday expelled one of its top leaders, Ghulam Hassan Mir, who has been critical of party patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. “Ghulam Hassan Mir, MLA from Tangmarg, has been indulging in anti-party activities and has been criticizing the policies and programmes of the PDP, which are dear to the people of J&K state,” Abdul Aziz Zargar, the state’s agriculture minister and chairman of the party’s disciplinary committee, said in a release.

“Therefore, keeping in view the party interests, Ghulam Hassan Mir is hereby expelled from the basic membership of PDP.”

Mir has been challenging party leaders, particularly former chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, with whom he has been associated since the 1980s. The two were together in the Congress for a number of years before they jointly founded the PDP July 29, 1999.

The dissident leader publicly accused Mufti Mohammad Sayeed recently of curbing the dissent and working to promote his daughter Mehbooba Mufti at the cost of others.

“Mufti Sayeed loves sycophancy and is fond of dictating his own personal agenda. He refuses to listen to dissent,” Mir said.